Birthday Traditions 5
by Kate McCaye
Summary: Jack's got a lot up his sleeve this year for Sam and Daniel's birthday. Complete.
1. Sam and Daniel

A/N: It's that time again, the next installment of the 'Birthday Traditions' series is being downloaded from my brain into my computer as fast as I can manage. This one won't be quite as fast as the rest, I'm sorry to say. Crazy things always seem to happen at once, don't they?Shortly before Christmas, I moved back to America with my fiance, and have been busy with all that entails as well as working on my dissertation. And living proof that real life actually can be stranger than fiction (even fanfiction!) I've just learned that I'm pregnant, due September 30. To make a long story short, there was some doubt as to whether I'd ever be able to have children without doing the whole in-vitro thing, so it was an extra shock. My sister is pregant as well, but she's still in London, and from the second I learned I was pregnant all I could think of was 'I want my big sister,' so things have been crazy around here, but in a very, very good way. I have no idea how this is going to affect these stories, but I think it's probably a good thing I've already got them basically planned out anyway. The first two chapters of this one might be a bit on the nauseatingly sweet side. Part of that's probably hormones, but part of it is preparation for next year, when our poor Sam will be without Daniel on their birthday.

Ch 1: Sam and Daniel

Sam and Daniel left the base on Wednesday night, early for both of them, around six. Dressed casually, they went to a nice but quiet restaurant not too far from the base that had a chicken and pasta thing Sam loved and huge burgers Daniel maintained should be used in trade negotiations with other planets.

"So," Daniel said with a smile as they sat down across the table from each other.

"So. Happy Birthday, Daniel."

"Happy Birthday, Sam."

They both started perusing their menus, although they knew exactly what they were going to order as entrees anyway.

Their CO had started the tradition of throwing the two of them a party to celebrate their shared birthday every year, but he always gave it on the Friday or Saturday night closest to their birthday. It was a good plan, since his parties tended to require at least a half day to recover from.

But it left their actually birthdays open for the two of them to have a little tradition of their own, so whenever their birthday was not actually on Friday or Saturday, they had dinner together, alone, and exchanged their gifts to each other.

It was always a calm, quiet evening, basically the exact opposite of Jack O'Neill's birthday parties. Neither would sneak away to the hostess and arrange for the waiters to come out and sing to the other, because they would both only tolerate that kind of behavior from Jack. They would finish the meal with a dessert and quietly tell each other 'Happy Birthday,' and that was it.

Sam had never realized how strangely happy having someone share her birthday would make her. As far as she was concerned, Daniel was her brother in every aspect of the word except for genetically, and one of the things that had brought them close when she had first met him was the discovery that they shared the same birthday. Their CO's joking that they were the 'science twins' had taken on a new level that they both cherished.

Daniel loved it because he had never had a brother or sister and had no family left save those at the SGC, and Sam loved it because although she had a brother and her relationship with her father had improved beyond anything she had ever hoped for, she knew she would never be as close to either of them as she was to the man sitting across the table from her, ordering both their meals because she was too lost in her own thoughts to notice the waitress had returned with their drinks.

She shook herself out of her introspective mood as the waitress collected their menus and left. It wouldn't do to be a lousy dinner companion tonight, even if the reason was because she was so happy Daniel was such a part of her life.

"You okay?" Daniel asked casually.

"Yeah. I'm great. You?"

"Yeah. So, what do you think this year will be? With Jack?"

It was a little game they had started years ago; trying to predict what their CO would do for their party that year. So far neither of them had ever been right, a fact that pleased Sam a lot more than it probably should have.

"I don't know. Last year he mentioned something about clowns," she said teasingly. It was true, but she knew he had been joking.

Daniel got a slightly panicked look on his face.

"Don't worry, Daniel, I told him you don't like clowns."

"Aw, Sam, now he's got one more thing to mock me about..."

"He's had all year to do that and he hasn't brought it up yet, right?" she asked dismissively as their salads were placed in front of them. "Besides, I think he thought I was joking anyway. I don't know. What do you think?"

"Hmm, there's been the kids' party, the 'normal' party that ended up with you kicking his ass at poker..."

Sam smiled fondly at that memory. That had been the year she got Quarks, her cat, as well.

"Then the one at O'Malleys, and the slumber party. Hmm... costume party?" he guessed.

"Somehow I don't really see the Colonel throwing a costume party. But then again, neither of us thought he'd throw us a _slumber _party either."

"True. I dunno... if it wasn't winter I'd guess a pool party or something. Like a barbecue thing."

"Yeah. It's a bit chilly for that though," Sam agreed gratefully. They all got into quite enough trouble last year in oversized pajamas, she wasn't sure she could handle being around her CO in a swimsuit. "Maybe he'll go back to the little kid's party idea, just do it differently."

"If a singing dinosaur shows up for me, I'm out of there," Daniel said.

Sam laughed and said, "Understood. So, how's the research coming along?"

They chatted comfortably while they ate their meals. Both had become very adept over the years at speaking about highly classified things in public without revealing anything suspicious. Colonel O'Neill couldn't stand when they did it, arguing it could still be dangerous and they were on base for most of their lives anyway when they could speak freely, so when they were off-base they should keep the conversation off-base.

They knew the real reason he hated it when they talked like that though: they used even larger, more technical words than usual so most people wouldn't care to listen in even if they could understand them, and it frustrated the hell out of him. So when they ate alone they liked to take full advantage of the situation and talk about whatever they wanted without being ordered to stop or being made fun of and called 'nerds' or 'geeks.'

After they had finished eating, as they waited for their desserts, they both pulled out the gift they had been concealing for each other. Sam handed Daniel a shirt box, and he handed her a small box.

"Before you open it, I ah, may have gone a little bit overboard this year, but it's something I really want us to do, and... well, I think you'll like it," Sam said somewhat nervously.

Daniel looked at her in surprise. "Wow. Okay. Um, that's kind of scary. You go first."

She raised an eyebrow at him but he smiled encouragingly. "Um, I got this on P2X592, the extended excavation I did with SG15?"

She nodded to show she remembered as she started to unwrap the small, relatively flat box slowly. Daniel had been ecstatic about that whole trip and had stayed nearly a month, although the rest of SG1 had only popped in a couple of times for quick check-ups. "The Celtic people," Sam remembered.

"Yeah. Anyway, uh, I'll explain it more after you open it, but... Hammond might not be too pleased to know I negotiated an unauthorized trade for it so..."

"So we'll just keep it to ourselves," Sam supplied with a smile as she opened the box. "Oh, Daniel," she said quietly. "It's beautiful."

She flashed him a brilliant smile and looked back down at the necklace that was sparkling up at her. It was silvery, but reflected so much more light than any of earth's metals that she knew it was probably made of trinium, which went a long way towards explaining why Daniel wanted its origins kept secret from Hammond.

The chain was very long and thin and a piece of artwork all by itself, but the intricate looping knotwork at its apex is what drew her attention first. She vaguely remembered that Celtic knots were thought to have many meanings, but most of those had been lost throughout history. Hanging from the middle of the knotwork was a small dropped stone, bright blue, like the December birth stone on Earth.

The entire thing was so delicate she wondered how a culture whose weaponry was little more than blunt axes and bows and arrows could have produced it. At the same time, she knew that if it was made of trinium as she suspected, the thin chains would be nearly impossible to break. That thought prompted her to ask, "What does it mean?"

He grinned and said, "Can't a guy give a girl a necklace without it meaning anything?"

"Any guy, yes. You, no. What does it mean, Daniel?"

"Well, the first thing that attracted me to it was the color of the stone. It... reminded me of your eyes," he admitted sheepishly.

"Funny, it reminds me of yours," she replied.

"Anyway," he continued. "As you know, Celtic knots have many meanings, mostly having to do with eternity and what not, but nobody really knows what most of the different designs are for. However, the woman who makes these still remembers exactly what they all stand for. And when she saw me looking at this one, she told me."

"What does it mean?"

"Well, it's sort of the same thing about eternal life and eternal bonds between people that you normally find, but what not many people realize is that the different er, connections, I guess you'd say, between the knots, mean different things. They can represent different kinds of relationships, different kinds of love, all that. They have one for everything really, husband and wife, father and daughter, mother and son... this one is brother and sister. Specifically, as you can tell it's a pretty feminine design, it's meant to be from a brother to a sister. And the part in the middle, right there..." he leaned over and pointed. "It's for twins. Uh, as you know the... Celtic people traditionally were at war a lot, so this was a way they had to... remind each other of permanent bonds, when people might get... split apart. I just... I wanted there to be a physical reminder of how important you are to me, in case anything ever... happens... to either of us."

"Daniel Jackson, I can't believe you're making me cry in a restaurant, on my birthday," Sam finally said, trying to sound mad at him but failing miserably. She smiled as she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. She reached across the table, squeezed his hand, and carefully lifted the necklace out of its box to put it on. She looked at it in mild confusion. "Where's the clasp?"

"Oh, I'll help you. It doesn't have one," he explained, coming over to her and taking it from her. Making sure it was faced the proper direction, he looped it over her head three times, the chain was so long, until it rested at the normal height for a necklace. "It doesn't have one because they don't believe in breaking the unity of the necklace, and it goes around three times because, well, you already know the historical significance of the number three."

She nodded, looking down at it, and hugged him tightly before he could go back to his seat. "Thank you. It's beautiful," she repeated. "But the meaning behind it is the most important thing. Open yours now."

He sat back down and opened the box. He pulled out the tee-shirt inside with a laugh. "Toy Story?"

"I was going to get Mickey but I saw that one instead, and for some reason, it reminded me of you and the Colonel," she explained. Daniel looked at the shirt and shook his head. Buzz Lightyear and Woody... he didn't want to think too much about the analogy. "Open the envelope," Sam said impatiently.

He picked up the envelope that had been resting on top of the shirt and opened it, quickly pulling out its contents and breaking into a huge grin.

"We're going to Disney World?" he asked.

"Yup," she said with a grin. "Remember when we talked about how you never got to go, because your parents were always on digs... well, I figured you're never too old, right, and I haven't been since I was really little either and... they're five day passes but there's not a specific date, so whenever we get enough vacation time we can actually use, we can just go."

"You and me at Disney World."

"And I promise we don't have to spend the _whole _time at Epcot," she said.

He laughed and said, "Thanks, Sam. This is perfect. It's the same sort of thing, isn't it? As the necklace? Creating ties..."

"Don't make me cry again, Daniel," she warned as their dessert arrived.


	2. The SetUp

A/N: Thanks for all the warm wishes everybody. There was another storm last night, which translates into faster updates for you guys, because my dogs kept me awake most of the night. It doesn't look like this story is going to be as funny as the others, it's going to be more shippy though, definitely. Jack's gifts in this chapter were originally written for BT4, but I moved it to this one... I know I had a reason at the time but I can't remember it now. Ah well. Enjoy.

Ch 2: The Set-Up

Jack O'Neill couldn't believe he was nervous as he set about putting his plan into motion that Friday. This was ridiculous. It was just another party... although it did have the potential to go catastrophically wrong on a much larger scale than any of the previous ones he'd thrown for Carter and Daniel over the years.

Still, he was never one to back down from a challenge. With Teal'c beside him, as calm as ever, he headed into Carter's lab, where Daniel was working quietly in the corner on some old notebook SG4 had brought back, and Carter was typing up a report about some doohickey or other.

To hide his nervousness, he overcompensated, clapping his hands together loudly as he entered the lab and saying, "Good evening, kiddoes, the working day is done!"

Both looked over from their work and then looked at the clock. "Yup. It's five already, campers. Come on, we're all going straight to my house this year."

"Right from work?" Carter asked doubtfully. Of course they knew they were having their party that night, but she had planned on going home, showering, and changing first.

"Yup. Right from work. Cassie's probably already over at my house and Janet's leaving as soon as she finishes patching up Siler. Come on now, no dawdling. Teal'c and I are not above carrying you both out of here."

His enthusiasm overcame their suspicions as to what he was planning and they both quickly got to stopping points in their work and followed he and Teal'c to the elevators, exchanging confused looks.

"Are you sure we're dressed appropriately, sir?"

"Nope, but don't you worry about that, Carter. We'll just stop in the locker room, you guys can change into your civvies and grab your bags, and we'll be off."

When he was in this mood, Daniel and Sam both knew it was best to just keep quiet and go along with him. Which they did. Fifteen minutes later the four of them were piled into his truck on the way to his house. Daniel was trying to get Teal'c to tell them what was going on.

Teal'c was pretending not to hear him. Finally, he switched tactics and simply turned Jack's radio on rather loudly to drown out the constant stream of questions from the back seat of the car.

Cassie, as Jack had predicted, was already at his house when they arrived. She hugged both Sam and Daniel as everyone filed into the house. Sam looked at her goddaughter in mild confusion, as Cassie was pretty dressed up, wearing big strappy shoes, a short black skirt, and a sparkly purple top.

"Going clubbing later?" Jack asked, eyeing the length of her skirt with obvious distaste. Sam smiled, always unable to find his overprotective attitude towards Cassie anything less than endearing.

"I have a date later, if you must know," Cassie said absently.

A familiar scratching at the back door demanded Jack's attention and he quickly crossed the living room to let his puppy in. "Hey, Maggie, long time no see!" he greeted enthusiastically as she launched herself at him happily. The puppy Sam had given him for his birthday was now at that awkward baby-deer stage where she was mainly long gangly legs, big feet, and a lolling puppy-dog smile.

After bounding around him happily for several moments, Maggie realized there were other people there, hey, people she knew! She hurried over to greet them all, paying particular attention to Sam, who got jumped on enthusiastically. She knelt down to pet the puppy, trying to avoid being licked in the face.

Jack let his puppy go wild for several moments and finally said, "Sit, Maggie." The puppy looked at him with a face that plainly said 'why?' but sat anyway. However, her tail was wagging so enthusiastically that she quickly got back to her feet, pressing against Sam like a cat. Everyone knew where she'd learned that trick.

"She must smell Quarks," Cassie commented as Sam continued to give the puppy the attention she was demanding.

"Sit, Maggie," she said quietly as she stood up and brushed herself off. The puppy sat, looking up at her attentively but not moving a muscle.

"Oh fer cryin out loud," Jack muttered as he went to answer the knock on the door, which turned out, just as he'd expected, to be Janet Fraiser. They went back into the living room, where Maggie was still receiving most of the attention.

It was an ongoing joke between all of them that Maggie listened to Sam much better than she listened to Jack. Jack and Sam both agreed it was because she had bonded to Sam first; Sam had the puppy at her house for a day and night before she gave him to Jack that year for his birthday. Also, Maggie identified Sam as her best friend's 'mom.'

She and Quarks had hit it off right away, much to everyone's amusement. The strange situation had made Sam and Jack the brunt of a lot of jokes and teasing from the rest of their friends since the arrival of "Magnet O'Neill," as Teal'c had insisted on addressing the puppy for the first three months of her existence. Only after Jack had finally convinced Teal'c that she would never respond to such a long name had Teal'c begun to call her "Magnet" instead, but he never shortened her name to "Maggie" as everyone else did most of the time.

Jack complained about his puppy constantly, she was always getting into things and making messes, and she loved to chew up his shoes and had even chewed up a few of the railings on his deck. But he wasn't fooling anyone. He loved his dog ridiculously and treated her like a human. That, plus the fact that Sam had given her to him and named her, and the fact that Sam was obviously Magnet's favorite human on the planet next to her 'dad,' had given the rest of SG1, and Janet and Cassie in particular, plenty of things to tease the two of them about.

They both dismissed most of their friends' gentle joking about the strange 'joint custody' arrangement the dog seemed to be under, as it had proved easier on everybody for Magnet to stay at Sam's house with Quarks when they were all off-world. Cassie took care of them both so it just made sense for them to be in the same place. Plus they both behaved better when they were together, because they entertained each other and didn't get as bored while Cassie was at school. Only Cassie was brave enough to make jokes like, "So, strange little family you guys are making." And even Cassie didn't have the guts to say something like that to both of them at the same time.

Suddenly Jack clapped his hands together, getting everyone's attention. "Sorry guys but we're on a tight schedule this evening so I need the birthday boy and girl on the couch right now for presents and everybody else... you know what to do."

Daniel and Sam obediently sat down in the middle of the couch. Maggie jumped up between them and settled herself against Sam, laying down but watching all the action with great interest. Sam pet her absently while everyone set gifts in front of the two of them.

"All right, get going, we don't have all night," Jack instructed.

Daniel and Sam started opening their gifts quickly, wondering why they were being rushed so much. Cassie and Janet had given them each gift cards to their favorite restaurants. "Not very original, sorry," Cassie apologized as Daniel and Sam hugged them and thanked them.

"This is great, it doesn't have to be original," Sam objected.

"Exactly, a relaxing dinner off-base is a very special gift," Daniel assured her.

Teal'c handed them each a package. Sam's was 'The Matrix' trilogy and Daniel's was 'Lord of the Rings.'

"Wow, thanks, Teal'c!" Daniel said happily as Sam hugged him round the neck and kissed him on the cheek. "These'll keep team movie night interesting for a long time!"

"Indeed they will, Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said, pleased his gifts were appreciated. One of his favorite things about Earth culture was the abundance of films available for entertainment.

"Okay, now, let's..."

"Jack," Cassie said in a warning tone.

"Oh, right." Jack hurried to the closet and grabbed two large, flat, rather heavy boxes. He was especially proud of his gifts for them this year but he knew they would slow things down a lot and they had a lot to do to get ready. He checked the tags and gave each box to the appropriate person, sitting down on the coffee table across from them to watch them open.

Sam glanced at Daniel, biting her lip, and looked at everyone else. It was obvious that the rest of the room knew exactly what was inside those boxes. "It ah... it's from all of us," he said quickly, running a hand through his hair.

"No it's not, don't be modest, Colonel," Janet insisted. "You did those by yourself."

"Everyone helped me," he insisted. "With the er... collecting of the... the things. You'll see."

Now not having a clue what to expect, Sam and Daniel opened their gifts slowly at the same time and looked up at Jack in surprise together, twin looks of astonishment on their faces. He'd made them photo albums.

They were very similar but not identical; each one had been tailored for its owner. The large leather albums had obviously taken him a long time to put together.

"None of us have seen those things, so you'd better make room on that couch!" Janet called firmly. "We had no idea what he was up to, demanding we scrounge up pictures of any and all of you all year long, haunting the SGC for pictures, calling..."

"I didn't haunt," Jack objected self-consciously from his perch on the coffee table.

Janet, Cassie, and Teal'c had already surrounded Sam and Daniel so they could look at the albums with them. Sam nudged Janet further along the couch and then looked at Jack pointedly until he got the hint and moved to the empty space she'd created on the couch, between herself and Daniel. Magnet, feeling it was silly for everybody to be sitting so close on _her _couch, got off and started inspecting the piles of discarded wrapping paper casually.

Now with five people on the couch, it was quite crowded, but that was good if they all wanted to be able to see the pictures.

Sam scooted back over to Jack until he had a scientist pressed against each side of his body. He wrapped an arm around both of them, squeezing Sam's shoulder lightly. They started going through the albums. A lot of the pictures were from their various parties over the years. Neither Sam nor Daniel had ever realized so many pictures were being taken.

They knew that all the ones from the first year were screen captures from the video tape, and both marveled at all the work he had obviously done to get them. A lot of the pictures in each one were the same, although they were always arranged slightly differently on the page. But there were a lot of individual ones that were specific to each person.

Sam's, for instance, had a bunch of pictures of Quarks at various ages and with various people, and with Magnet as well. Daniel's had a lot more of just Daniel with one other person, like Daniel talking to Teal'c or Janet, or Daniel and Sam, that he now realized Jack himself must have taken, specifically for the purposes of making this book.

Some of them had been taken from his archives of footage shot off-world, using the same screen-capture technique as the tape from the first birthday. There were lots of pictures from other times throughout the year, events on the base, other holidays, other peoples' birthdays, and just casual get-togethers. Sam's had a few of her dad, and some of them she knew for a fact were from way before he was a Tok'ra. She wondered how on earth he had managed to get any of those.

The huge books contained tons of pictures but they were still only about halfway filled. They flipped through the blank pages quickly and both knew what he was saying: they'd keep filling the books up with this year's memories, and the next, and the next.

Neither Daniel nor Sam had a clue what to say in response to what he had presented them with. Then they both realized he really didn't want either of them to say anything about it, but that was just too damn bad. As soon as they could find something to say they were going to say it.

For the meantime, they both hugged him tightly on the couch, Daniel encompassing Sam in his hug as well so that she was pressed closer to Jack and it made Daniel's hug seem a little more masculine.

"I did it, Teal'c," Jack finally said after a long silence. "I finally rendered our little yapping scientists speechless!" Everyone laughed, but Daniel and Sam still didn't move, and suddenly a large weight was added to the pile as well as Teal'c wrapped his arms around all three of them at once.

"Woa, hey there, buddy we love you too," Daniel said, his breath a bit knocked away as he was crushed between Teal'c's arm and Jack. "Dr. Fraiser, come here," Teal'c said firmly, leaving no room for argument as he pulled the tiny woman into the huge pile of people.

Janet was hugged against Daniel and Sam as well, Cassie was hugging as many of them as she could reach but that was mainly just Daniel and Teal'c. Nobody moved for a long time. Finally, she couldn't help it. Janet started giggling. Soon Sam started giggling as well, then all three men erupted into laughter as well and they stayed on the couch in a laughing heap of tangled arms and limbs until they all needed to breathe.

They broke apart, some wiping their eyes from laughing so hard. "I guess they liked them," Jack said quietly.

Daniel shifted on the couch so he could look his friend in the eye, his album still cradled protectively in his lap. "Jack, this..."

Jack waved his hand dismissively. Sam, who was still curled up against his side and had no intention of moving, watched their interaction with even more fascination and affection than usual.

"No, I know you don't want to hear it but... since when has that ever stopped me from talking, right?" Daniel asked with a smile and a little laugh. "I don't have any family albums or anything like that from when I was a kid. When your parents are on digs constantly, there's not a lot of time for your mom to put together that kind of stuff, and then... well. This means a lot to me, Jack. I know you know that, and I know that's why you did it. Thank you," he said sincerely.

Jack coughed discreetly in his hand, not liking the attention.

"Uh, Jack, we do need to hurry," Cassie said suddenly.

Jack looked at the clock and groaned. "You're right. Okay, you guys get started, you two come with me," he said quickly, pulling Sam and Daniel both to their feet.

He dragged them both by the hands upstairs and into the guest room. "Okay," he said quickly. "Here's the deal. You guys stay in here until I come to get you. I'm actually going to lock you in."

"What!" Daniel and Sam asked in surprise.

"Just to be sure, I don't want your curiosity getting the better of either of you. I'll come get you in about... two hours."

"Two hours!" Sam spluttered.

"Don't worry, you'll be busy. Take showers, relax, whatever, then get changed."

"Into what?" Daniel asked, looking down at himself pointedly. Sam noticed their overnight bags were already in the room. This had clearly been pretty carefully planned out, whatever it was.

"Into the stuff in that closet," Jack said with a smirk. "And if you get done with that..." he pointed to the bed, where his chessboard was already set up.

"Happy birthday!" he called happily as he hurried out of the room. They looked at each other, too surprised to speak, as the unmistakable sounds of a chair being braced against a doorknob filtered through the crack under the door.

"Well, looks like we were wrong again," Sam said quietly.


	3. Multiple Distractions

Ch 3: Multiple Distractions

Once they were left alone in Jack's guest room, Sam and Daniel both turned their attention back to the albums they were still holding.

"These must have taken him so long to do," Sam said quietly, unable to hide the affection in her voice.

"Yeah," Daniel agreed. Sam knew he was just as moved as she was by all the effort the Colonel had put into their gifts.

After a few moments of quiet thought, she said suddenly, "Let's see what it is we're supposed to change into."

"I'm sort of scared to look," Daniel admitted as they set their albums down and went over to the closed closet door.

"Yeah, me too," Sam muttered, opening the closet bravely.

Daniel pulled out his outfit and looked at it with a shrug. A new dark blue dress shirt, some black slacks that were his own, and his own shoes. When exactly had Jack and/or Teal'c broken into his house and stolen his clothes? he marveled slightly. A piece of paper poked out of the pocket of the shirt. He pulled it out and laughed loudly.

"What?" Sam asked.

"It's from Jack, it says, 'you should have seen the shirt Teal'c wanted to get for you,'" Daniel read.

Sam laughed but her attention was still on the dress she was holding out at arm's length. The very small black dress.

"Woa," Daniel said as he looked at it as well.

Sam turned it around to look at the back and groaned. The back was practically non-existent. "I'm going to kill Cassie," she said quietly.

"Umm, are you absolutely certain she's the one who picked that out? I mean, it could have been..." Sam glared at him. "Someone else," Daniel finished, although they both knew that wasn't what he was going to say. "It could be worse," Daniel offered. "It doesn't look very low... in the front."

"True," Sam admitted with a sigh, longing suddenly for the tight jeans and the O'Neill tee-shirt Cassie had made her wear last year. "It also doesn't look like I'll be able to wear a bra, with the way the back of this thing is... configured."

"Sam, I really didn't need to know that," Daniel said, wincing in distaste at the thought of her going braless all night. It was much the same look Jack had given Cassie when he had noticed the length of her skirt.

"Sorry," she apologized absently. "Okay, well, do you want to take the first shower?"

"No, you go first. You take longer, so you'll have longer to get ready if you go first," Daniel offered, hanging his outfit back up and stretching out on the bed, reaching for his photo album. He wanted to look through it again, slower, without everyone else around.

"Thanks," Sam called, hanging the dress back up and grabbing her bag. She went into the bathroom and started the shower.

An hour later, Daniel was shifting nervously in the bathroom, where he was waiting while Sam got dressed. "Can I come out yet?" he called hopefully.

"Yeah, come on out!" Sam called back.

Daniel let himself back into the bedroom and stopped, smiling broadly at her.

"What?" she asked self-consciously, smoothing the dress down.

"Nothing, you look great, Sam. Really. _Whoever _picked that dress out did a really good job."

She smiled at the compliment but fiddled with her earring nervously. Daniel had been right, the dress wasn't very revealing in the front at all. It nearly reached her knees and was a silky black material with a loose, almost cowl-like neckline that didn't show off any cleavage, really, unless you happened to be several inches taller than she was and looking straight down. It was held up by very thin black straps that wove across her back as well.

"I need you to tie this thing at the back actually, I can't get it tight enough myself," Sam said, turning around.

Daniel raised both eyebrows at the sight of her back, which was bare except for all the straps going across it. "Looks like shoelaces," he commented as he moved to tie off the straps where they stopped, just above her butt. "Do you want a bow or a knot?"

"Bow." He nodded and quickly tied them off in a bow, then double knotted it just to be sure.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Don't want this accidentally coming undone," he said matter-of-factly. "If Jack picked this dress out I'm going to hurt him," he decided.

Sam laughed at his overprotectiveness and stepped away from him. "Well, one thing I'm happy about this dress, the neckline is absolutely perfect for the necklace you gave me." She took it out of her bag and put it on carefully, checking it in the mirror. Just as she had thought, it was perfect.

"Well?"

"You look beautiful, Sam."

"You look very handsome too, Daniel," she said truthfully as she strapped on her shoes reluctantly. They looked great, but they hurt like hell.

"What now?" Sam asked, realizing they still had the better part of an hour before they were going to be let out of their room.

"Chess?" Daniel asked.

Sam eyed the board in the middle of the bed. "If I sit down I'll get this dress all wrinkled."

"Well, you can't stand up all night," he reasoned.

"True," she agreed. She stretched out on her stomach on the foot of the bed, quickly making sure the dress wasn't going to wrinkle like that. "All right. This works. You go first." Daniel sat down across from her behind the white pieces and opened the same way he always did.

"Everybody decent in there?" Jack called through the closed door as he pulled the chair away.

"Yeah," Daniel called back. Jack opened the door. He was expecting them to be dressed up, waiting for him, playing chess. He wasn't expecting his 2IC to be stretched out across the bed on her stomach, legs bent up behind her, heels on and ankles crossed.

He'd known she was going to be all dressed up, of course, but she just looked so casual sprawled across the bed, so inadvertently sexy and different from herself, but not so different really, because she was so into the chess game that she hadn't even noticed he was there, and she had the same look of concentration on her face he'd seen a million times... he cleared his throat and left the room quickly.

Daniel had done nothing but watch Jack's eyes zero in on Sam, who of course hadn't even noticed his presence at all. As Jack left the room, Daniel burst out laughing and Sam looked up at him like he was mad. "What is wrong with you?" she asked, moving her bishop across the board. "Check mate," she added casually.

He looked down at the board and said, "Damn. Uh, Jack was just in here. I think judging by the look on his face, he is _not _the one who picked out that dress."

Sam blushed furiously and got up quickly, smoothing down the dress to make sure everything was still properly in place. Jack came barreling back into the room dragging Cassie with him. "This is not the dress I picked out," he said, pointing at Sam.

"Yes, it is," Cassie said calmly but firmly, crossing her arms over her chest and preparing herself for the argument to follow.

"Woa, woa, what exactly..." Sam started.

Jack spun her around by the shoulders and pointed at her back. "You didn't show me this!" he insisted.

"Jack, calm down," Cassie said, grinning broadly. "I did exactly as you asked, I got a dress for Sam. As you recall, I got three dresses and showed them to you. You picked this one, I returned the other two. It's not my fault if you didn't ask to see the back of the dresses. Everybody's waiting downstairs," she added, winking at Sam and leaving the room before Jack could get in another word.

Sam, who had been initially furious at the problems the dress seemed to already be causing, suddenly burst into hysterical laughter at the look on Jack's face. Daniel followed suit and finally Jack laughed as well and said, "Every year, she manages to mess with my head... I'm going to kill that kid one of these days. I'm sorry, kids." He stepped back from Sam and Daniel and locked eyes with Sam to make sure she wasn't mad or anything. She clearly wasn't.

He sighed in relief and disappeared for a second, quickly returning with their birthday hats. "Almost ready, then we can go down to your party."

As she set the tiara on her head obediently, Sam took the opportunity to appreciate her CO's outfit as well, and wondered if Cassie had picked that out too. She supposed there really wasn't anything special about the dark gray slacks and black sweater he was wearing, but she always got a thrill out of seeing him in regular clothes, and regular but dressy clothes were even more rare.

Whoever made that sweater deserved a big pat on the back, Sam decided. It seemed to have been made to showcase his shoulders and chest, and her eyes were drawn to his eternally messy hair more than they usually were, for some reason. He had a way of wearing clothes that always attracted her attention. Like he threw them on in five minutes, knew he looked great, and was comfortable wearing anything. She blushed as she realized how long she'd been checking out her CO, wondering how much longer they both would have continued to stare at each other if Daniel hadn't coughed pointedly.

"Er, right, you're both ready then. Let's go," Jack said, heading out the door. Sam and Daniel followed, exchanging looks and shrugs, neither really having a clue what could possibly be awaiting them downstairs. As Jack froze on the top of the stairs and called, "Ready, Teal'c?" Sam and Daniel grabbed each other's hands.

"Come on," Jack encouraged, heading down the stairs.

They followed after him, stopping halfway to take in the huge crowd of people in his living room. Teal'c, at the foot of the stairs in a shirt that looked straight out of a Garth Brooks video, started directing the entire crowd in singing 'Happy Birthday.'

As they all sang, Daniel and Sam surveyed the crowd. The entire SGC seemed to be there. Jack's furniture had all been pushed back against the walls, leaving a big open space in the middle of the large room. Looking through to the dining room, there was a large buffet of food set up, and balloons and decorations were everywhere. Grogan, one of the newest recruits, was setting up some sort of sound system over in a corner. The sliding glass doors that led out to his deck showed that it was lit up decoratively and had large heating units going already.

And the SGC must have been functioning on a skeleton crew, Sam thought as she took in all the people who were smiling at her. Everyone, it seemed, was there. Her dad and General Hammond were standing with Janet and Cassie, who was trying to keep Maggie from running up to Sam. As the song ended, everyone started talking again.

Jack blew a party horn loudly and said, "Just a minute everybody, before we get down to some serious partying..." Everyone groaned. "For those of you who don't know already, the food is in the dining room, the drinks are in the kitchen... Grogan here was kind enough to offer his services as DJ for the evening so feel free to dance, just not with me, and... what else? Oh yeah, there will be karaoke later on, so be sure to sign up for that and... that's it. Everybody have fun, but not too much fun, cuz remember, General Hammond IS here..." Everyone laughed loudly. "Okay. That's it. Watch out for my dog, Maggie, don't give her anything to eat. Have fun!"

Everyone started milling around. Jack turned up to look at Sam and Daniel, unable to keep the hopeful look off his face. "Well?"

"This is great, Jack!" Daniel said enthusiastically, hugging him on his way down the stairs to go join all the guests. Jack watched him go, happy Daniel was pleased, and turned back to his 2IC.

"Wow, when you say distraction, you mean distraction," she said fondly, remembering his vow after their spectacular kiss the year before that this year he was going to create tons more distractions.

"Uh, yeah," Jack said, running his hand through his hair and looking her up and down slowly.

She blushed instantly, hating how easy it was for him to unsettle her. "I'd say in that respect I failed spectacularly already," he said sincerely, fixing her with his gaze.

She blushed even more but was thankfully spared having to come up with a response when she heard her Dad and General Hammond calling them.


	4. Dancing around the issue

A/N: Yes, Sunstorm, I was wondering if anybody would mention the LOTR DVD thing. I thought I could sneak it by because nobody mentioned the Indiana Jones DVD from BT4, and those only came out about a year ago. Ah well, it's hard thinking of gifts for everybody to give them each year! Although to be honest it's kind of flattering that people are paying that much attention to these things!

This story is not going to be as long as that last monster turned out to be, I think we're looking at around six or seven chapters (but I think it's probably the shippiest thing I've ever done, I'm a bit surprised at myself!) Thanks so much for all the thoughtful reviews and congratulations, it really makes my day when I can take a break from grading papers with sentences like "Hamlet is a tragedy because almost everybody dies at the end" and read your lovely reviews instead.

Ch 4: Dancing around the issue

Jack looked around his living room happily, feeling that the party was going well. Everyone seemed to be mingling and relaxing together well, which was always risky when you took people who worked together but typically didn't socialize together and put them all in a social situation. But Daniel and Sam were both very popular around the SGC, not that either of them realized what strong fan bases they both had among the rest of the SGC personnel.

So everyone had been very eager to come when he had invited everyone not on-duty or off-world to the party. The food was good, and the alcohol was helping everyone relax but so far nobody had gotten so drunk as to embarrass themselves in front of Hammond. Grogan as DJ had been a really good find, Jack decided. The kid knew what he was doing.

Lieutenant Hailey, Carter's little protege, had tipped him off when he'd invited her to the party to the fact that Grogan's family owned a couple of night clubs and he had experience playing DJ and hosting parties. Jack had asked if he'd be interested and Grogan had immediately said yes, borrowed some equipment from one of his parents' places, and was currently playing a very wide variety of music so that hopefully everyone could find something they liked.

"Maggie, stay," Jack said quietly. The puppy at his side had been inspecting everyone and everything all night, and made several trips in and out to his backyard with the people milling out on the deck, but after people had really started dancing, he'd been having a bit of trouble keeping her from tripping Carter up, because as the guest of honor, people had been asking her to dance pretty much nonstop since Grogan had fired up his little machine.

Jack was glad she was enjoying herself so much, but was finding out that his earlier statement about the 'distraction' being a failure was 100 percenttrue. Even when he tried to pay attention to something else, his eyes kept automatically finding her wherever she happened to be. The only thing that had actually worked so far had been talking to the two Generals, and even that was starting to lose its effectiveness.

Currently, Jack was standing in a small group with Teal'c, Jacob, and General Hammond. As Jacob didn't know most of the guests very well, he had been sticking close to General Hammond for most of the night. The group of men were watching the birthday boy and girl happily. Grogan was apparently in a swing music kind of mood, because for the past three songs Sam had been trying to teach Daniel how to dance to it properly, a task that was made more difficult than usual by the fact that Daniel was having trouble keeping his sequined top hat on his head while following Sam's instructions.

"Major Carter is a very skilled dancer, General Carter," Teal'c commented. "I would not have expected that of her."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Jacob said. "That was her mother - I can't count the number of times I came home and they'd rearranged the living room furniture. Mark and Sam would both be dancing around with her, they always looked so happy. I'm glad to see she still enjoys it so much."

"Indeed," Teal'c agreed.

They watched as Daniel stood on Carter's feet, making them both crack up. Carter pushed Daniel aside, patting his chest comfortingly, and grabbed Janet, apparently feeling if Daniel could be shown the move properly he'd have better luck. She and Janet danced around for a while. Both of them were quite good, Jack couldn't help but notice. Then Carter pulled Daniel back into the mix and stepped back, to 'watch' and help teach. But after only a couple of seconds, she left them dancing with each other and made her way over to where Jack and the rest were all standing.

"Very smooth move there, Carter," Jack told her quietly, meaning the way she'd manipulated Daniel and Janet.

"Thank you, sir," she said with a grin, her face flushed from dancing, turning her attention to Teal'c. "Come on, Teal'c," she said suddenly, grabbing both his hands hopefully.

Jack took a sip of his beer, watching curiously to see who would win _this _battle. He figured it was a toss-up. Carter could be pretty hard to refuse, but he just couldn't picture Teal'c swing dancing.

"Major Carter, I will gladly die for you in battle, but I will not dance with you," Teal'c said, bowing slightly. Smooth one, Jack thought appreciatively.

"Aw... okay, fair enough," Carter said, turning to her CO.

"Oh no," Jack said, taking a step back away from her automatically.

"It's my birthday," she pointed out, giving him such an openly hopeful look that he wondered if maybe he would suddenly be able to dance just because he now kind of wanted to. He opened his mouth, intending to stall by refusing, when the music changed anyway and he didn't have to. "Ah, I better take Maggie out," he said quickly, scooping up his dog and hurrying outside before she could give him another one of those looks.

As he worked his way towards the crowded deck, he could hear the group he had just left laughing and knew they were probably laughing at his hasty retreat. Ah well, he didn't care. Everyone was having a good time, that was the important thing.

By the time he snuck back inside with Maggie at his heels, Carter was dancing with her dad. When that song ended, Jack grabbed one of the microphones Grogan had for the karaoke (man the kid came prepared) and tapped it loudly. Definitely on. Several people groaned at the static sound it produced and he spoke into it.

"Sorry. Everyone gather round for a minute..." He caught Teal'c and Cassie's eyes and they nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. "My favorite part of the evening is always the cake and well, it's my house and I say it's time for cake!"

He stopped while everyone laughed. "So... would the birthday boy and girl please come up here..."

Sam and Daniel wove their way up to him, looking a little embarrassed.

"I know we already sang to you guys once, but there are two of you so we're going to do it again," he continued as Teal'c brought in the huge cake. Since there were so many people this year, Jack had got a much bigger cake than normal and had both their names put on it. The sparklers were already set up but not lit.

Teal'c set the cake down in front of Jack and said, "O'Neill, I believe it is customary for you to give a brief speech at this time."

Jack looked at him in surprise and said, "No, sorry, no idea what you're talking about..." but everyone else had already taken it up and was demanding a speech as well.

"I'll get you later, big guy," Jack promised, making sure to speak into the microphone so everyone could hear.

He paused for them to laugh again and looked at Sam and Daniel, who both looked even more embarrassed than usual at the thought that he might make a speech about them. He smiled at them both and said, "All right, fine. Now, last time I tried to give a speech Thor whisked me away, so anytime you're ready buddy," he said, looking up at the ceiling hopefully. Everyone laughed. "All right, guess not. He's not around anyway, he declined my invitation. Some intergalactic emergency or something..."

Everyone laughed, and he could tell Carter was itching to ask if he'd really invited Thor or not. He had, but that wasn't the point. He stepped between Sam and Daniel and smiled at them both. "All right, all joking aside, you guys know I'm not one for speeches... which I think is part of the reason the four of us were put together on SG1 in the first place, so these two chatterboxes could balance out Teal'c and I, who are the more strong, silent, humble, modest type... but I digress..." More pause for laughter. Hey, this speech stuff wasn't so hard.

Teal'c started lighting all the sparklers.

"Anyway," he continued, suddenly getting an idea. "I started calling Carter and Daniel 'the science twins' long before I knew they actually do have the same birthday, and I'm more proud of both of them than I know how to say. So... thank you all for coming and helping us celebrate the birthday of my very beautiful and intelligent astrophysicist..."

He shocked Carter and everyone else in the room by tugging her to him and kissing her on the cheek.

"AND," he continued in a louder voice, because that had set the whole room off. "My equally beautiful and intelligent archaeologist," he added, grabbing Daniel and kissing him on the cheek as well, but in (he hoped) a much more manly and certainly less affectionate way than he had done with Carter.

Daniel made it even funnier by trying to get away from him. The crowd burst into laughter and a few whistles and cheers, and Carter and Daniel were both blushing like mad and Daniel was scrubbing his cheek where Jack had kissed him. "So, let's get the singing done with so we can eat this cake!" Jack declared, passing the microphone back to Grogan and waving his arms like a choir director dramatically as everyone began singing.

As he lead the singing, he glanced over at Carter, who was still looking shocked at the way he'd managed to get away with that in front of everyone. He winked at her discreetly and she suddenly overcame her embarrassment and he recognized the challenging sparkle in her eye with some trepidation. Uh-oh. She was going to get back at him for that, he was sure of it. Ah well, whatever she came up with, he decided as she and Daniel leaned over the cake to blow out all the sparklers as the song ended, it was probably going to be a whole lot of fun.


	5. Two Evil Generals

A/N: Thanks for the reviews. I especially appreciated the ones about Jack's speech - sometimes he can be kind of hard to write, especially in situations like that. I think this is the funniest chapter of this story - the last two are less fun, more mushy-gushy. Hope you like it.

Ch 5: Two Evil Generals

Jack was sitting on the arm of his couch eating a large piece of cake. Sam, Cassie, Teal'c, and Jacob were all with him, eating their cake as well and chatting about some book or something. Jack looked around and realized he and Sam were both right there and Maggie was not. That was odd. Her two favorite people in one place, _and _eating food, and she wasn't anywhere in sight. That could only mean she was doing something she shouldn't. He scanned the room quickly and got up, handing his plate to Sam absently and hurrying into the kitchen.

The party, which wasn't as loud now as it had been earlier, since the music was only providing background noise to people eating cake and chatting in small groups, was interrupted by Jack's loud cry of, "MAGGIE! BAD DOG!" from the kitchen. Everyone froze for a moment and laughed as the puppy slunk into the room from the kitchen. She slunk all the way over to Carter and stood behind her legs, peering out around her at the door to the kitchen, waiting for 'dad' to emerge.

He poked his head out of the kitchen a few seconds later and called, "I hope nobody wanted any more of those little cheesy things!" Everyone laughed at the silly Colonel and his funny little dog.

Sam moved instinctively to go help him clean up whatever mess was in the kitchen but Teal'c squeezed her shoulder lightly and said, "I will assist O'Neill with whatever mess Magnet has made, Major Carter."

"Thanks," she called as he hurried towards the kitchen without waiting for an argument.

"Magnet?" Jacob asked with a chuckle as Sam leaned over slightly to scratch the dog's ears.

"Yeah, that's her real name," Cassie explained. "We usually call her Maggie, but Teal'c never does. At least he finally stopped calling her 'Magnet O'Neill,' though, that was just weird."

"That's a bizarre name for a dog," Jacob commented. "What's your cat's name again, Sam?"

"Quarks," Sam answered absently as she sat down on the arm of the couch her CO had been occupying earlier. It put her at a better angle to pet Maggie. Maggie jumped up on the couch and leaned over, trying to lick one of the two pieces of cake Sam was still holding in one hand. She held them away from Maggie, made her sit down, and kept petting her.

"You people are strange. Why can't you give your animals normal names?" Jacob asked, taking a big bite of cake.

Cassie laughed and said, "Well, Jack gets the blame for Quarks of course, although Sam did agree to it... then she named Magnet as sort of payback."

Clearly this was new information to Jacob, and clearly he thought the whole situation was a bit too familiar for a CO and his 2IC. Or more likely, for his daughter and... any man. Cassie shifted on her feet nervously, hoping she hadn't got Sam into trouble. They were all having such a fun night that she hadn't really thought about the implications of what she was saying. Sam squeezed the girl's arm lightly, letting her know it didn't matter. Her dad was going to think whatever he wanted to anyway.

"Maybe I should take Mags over to your place, Sam," Cassie suggested. "That way Jack won't have to worry about her all night."

"There's no need to do that, Cass, he can put her in his bedroom if she..." Sam trailed off, catching the hopeful look on the teenager's face. She remembered what Cassie had said earlier about having a date later. It _was _Friday night, and it wasn't like Cassie had anybody her own age to hang out with here... she'd obviously really appreciate the excuse to leave the party, and have Sam's house to herself for a few hours on top of that.

"Ohhh," Sam said loudly and suggestively. Hey, she might give Cassie what she wanted, but she was sure as hell going to tease her about it in the process. "I see what this is. A cleverly masked ploy to leave the boring old people and give good old Dominic a call."

"Sam!" Cassie objected, looking around to see if anyone had overheard.

Obviously, Jacob had, but he was watching the conversation with feigned detachment and had already been there for the start of it anyway, so there wasn't much either of them could do about that.

"All right, but you'll have to walk," Sam stipulated. "My car's not here and you don't have your license anyway."

"I have my permit! I can take Mom's car..." Cassie objected. Sam gave her a look. "Okay, I'll walk," she grumbled. It wasn't that far to Sam's house, but it was kind of cold out.

"Wow, Dominic must be a _really _good kisser," Sam teased. Cassie rolled her eyes. "Go get changed, take my house key off my key ring, and get Maggie's l-e-a-s-h," she spelled out, knowing the puppy already knew the word 'leash' and would be bouncing off the walls if she heard it.

"I love you, you're the best!" Cassie gushed, hurrying up to the guest room to go change into clothes she could walk home in.

"You're knowingly helping Cassandra get a house to herself with her boyfriend for the night?" Jacob demanded quietly as soon as the teenager was gone.

"Yes, dad," Sam said patiently as Jack and Teal'c headed back over to them. "Cassie's a good kid. I trust her. They'll watch a movie and make out on the couch a little, that's all," she said absently. Jack took his plate of cake back from her and glared down at Maggie, who was still partially hidden behind Sam.

"I can see you, Maggie," he said accusingly. The puppy looked at him innocently. He rolled his eyes and leaned over, ruffling her hair briefly and then standing back up, already smiling again.

"Cassie's going to take her over to my place for the rest of the night," Sam told him.

"What? Why?" Jack demanded. Hey, he might be scolding her but she was still his dog. This was _her _house, after all, she couldn't be held responsible for having a little fun while it was full of all these strangers.

"So she'll keep out of trouble. Besides, she'll have more fun over there anyway," Sam said absently around another bite of cake.

"And so will Cassie," Jacob put in.

Jack looked at him sharply and some strange overprotective male... thing... Sam didn't want to try to guess at passed between them and Jack said, "She's going to have that punk kid over, isn't she?"

"Dominic is not a punk, Colonel," Sam objected mildly. "He's perfectly nice."

"That many earrings is not normal!" Jack insisted. "I don't want my innocent little puppy exposed to the likes of that kid."

"Oh please," Sam muttered, rolling her eyes. "Colonel, what exactly are you afraid is going to happen?" she challenged, wondering if he'd have the guts to actually say it.

He didn't. He looked down at his plate and mumbled, "You _know _what I'm talking about, Carter. That kid is trouble..."

"O'Neill, did we not spend last Saturday instructing Cassandra in the art of self defense until you were satisfied this Dominic could pose no threat to her safety?" Teal'c asked in a too-casual voice that betrayed the fact that he was teasing his friend.

Jack glared at him while Sam and Jacob laughed.

Cassie joined them again, dressed in jeans, a sweatshirt, and trainers, holding Maggie's leash. The puppy perked up instantly as she saw it and started running back and forth between all three of them happily, wondering which one of them was taking her for a walk. Cassie looked around at the group and correctly interpreted everybody's expressions.

"God, Jack, nothing's going to happen," she muttered, trying hard not to blush.

"Your mom will be over there later," Sam told her as she clipped the leash to Maggie's collar. "Make sure you send that boy home around midnight."

"I will, thanks, Sam."

Jack was glaring at both of them. "Keep in mind we could show up at ANY time," Jack said pointedly.

Cassie rolled her eyes and said, "Men." She pecked Sam on the cheek and said, "Happy birthday, Sam."

"Thanks, Cassie. Say bye to Daniel."

"Of course. Bye everyone," she said to the rest of the group. Teal'c, Jacob, and Jack were all looking mighty unhappy about her leaving but they all mumbled goodbyes. "Come on, Mags," Cassie said quietly, leading the dog through the crowd to find Daniel before they left.

Sam watched her dad curiously for a few moments. He clearly wanted to say something about the whole effect the puppy had on her interactions with her CO. She bet he was just dying to know how often Maggie stayed over at her place, but knew he wasn't likely to ask as he was probably half afraid of the answer.

And Jack was still scowling at the world in general, clearly upset about Cassie leaving. Well, no problem there, that was easily solved, Sam thought, picking up her empty cup. "I'm going to go get another drink. Want another piece of cake?" she asked him.

"Okay," he said in a grumpy voice, handing her his plate. She held off rolling her eyes until she was out of his sight.

She met up with Daniel in the kitchen. "I heard one of Janet's nurses and one of the gate technicians placing a new bet on you and Jack because of the way he kissed your cheek earlier," he informed her loudly.

"Shh, you're so loud when you're drunk," Sam scolded mildly, pouring a cup of soda for him. "Did you hear any of the bets about _you _and the Colonel?" she added innocently.

His jaw dropped open and she couldn't help but laughing. "Just kidding, Daniel."

"Mean."

"You just make it so easy sometimes," she said affectionately, patting him on the cheek. "Come on. Besides, I already got back at the Colonel for that little stunt."

"What'd you do?"

"Nothing particularly original, just left him alone with my dad for the last ten minutes."

"Wicked," Daniel said, half-scolding, half-impressed.

"Look who I found," Sam said as she rejoined her dad and Jack. Jack shot her a glare that told her he had probably had a not-very-comfortable conversation with her father in her absence, but she gave him an innocent smile and handed him his cake, pretending not to notice.

Daniel was getting cuddly again, as he always did when he was drunk. He crowded her on the arm of the sofa, twined his arm around hers, and started playing with her fingers. Jack glared at him but did nothing. Sam wondered if that was because her father was still glaring at Jack. There was really too much glaring going on at the moment for a party. Sam wondered exactly what Jack and her dad had talked about while she was gone as she sipped her drink and watched the both of them. Her musings were interrupted by Grogan announcing the first karaoke performance of the night.

"Man, I have a feeling in a few minutes we'll all be wishing we could get out of here too," Jack muttered to her quietly as the gate technician, Walter Davis, started a terrible duet with Sergeant Siler.

"You might be right about that, sir," Sam agreed, unable to keep from giggling.

Jacob went off to find his buddy George and Teal'c stated that both he and Daniel needed fresh air, leaving Sam and Jack alone. Well, as alone as you could be in a big room full of people, that is. Most of the room's attention was on the singing duo, of course.

"That wasn't very nice, Carter, leaving me alone with your dad like that," Jack commented casually.

"You had it coming, sir," she answered mildly, stealing a bite of his cake.

"Think we can get your dad and Hammond to do one?" Jack asked with a grin, gesturing to Walter and Siler.

"I don't think you'll _ever _get them that drunk," Sam said seriously.

He laughed and nodded. "You're probably right. And it's probably a good thing Cassie got Maggie out of here, she ate a lot of those cheese things. I hope she doesn't throw up in your house."

"Well, Cassie will keep an eye on her. I'm sure she'll be fine," she said, squeezing his arm lightly. He joked around, but she knew he was deeply attached to Maggie and would feel terrible if she had made herself sick at his party.

"Yeah, I guess you're right," he agreed. "So, if I recall from last year, you know how to put on a show. Are you and the doc gonna get up there and do a little 'Grease' for us?" he asked lightly, nudging her shoulder as he leaned next to her against the couch.

"No way," she said firmly. "I am NOT going up there. Although since it is _my _birthday, does that mean I can get _you _to go up there and..."

"Wild horses, Carter," he interrupted. "No way. You've got more luck with your dad and General Hammond."

Sam looked over to where the General and her dad were talking quietly. "They look awfully conspiratorial," she commented with a slight frown.

"Hmm, you're right. Hey, let's go try and get Danny and the doc to sing something. Bet you twenty I can get Danny up there."

"You're on," she challenged, and they set their plates down and went off in search of Daniel and Janet.

After over an hour of mostly very bad karaoke, nearly everybody had taken a turn. The SG3 Marines had won the award for most heckling, as their version of "Macho Man" had truly been one of the most painful things ever witnessed, but it was all in good fun, of course.

Daniel, Sam, Teal'c, Jack, and Janet were all refusing to go up there, however, and nobody was giving them too much grief about it, as Daniel and Sam were the guests of honor and Jack was host of the party. Janet was exempted because she had all those handy needles at her disposal, and Teal'c, well, nobody really told Teal'c to do anything he didn't want to do.

As Lieutenant Hailey and the three men from her new team finished up a not-too-shabby rendition of some over-the-top country song Jack didn't know, Grogan took the microphone again and said, "All right, I'm going to get my ass kicked for this one... tonight's final performance, by special request of General Hammond..."

Everyone started cheering before Grogan had even announced what was going on. When everyone died down a bit, he said, in a fake announcer voice, "SG-1 and Dr. Fraiser, please report to the microphones."

The cheering could not have been louder. "Oh this sucks," Jack muttered as he and his team reluctantly made their way up to the little performing area.

"Hey, where'd Teal'c go?" Daniel, on his right, demanded.

Teal'c was standing next to General Hammond and Jacob with the video camera trained on them. The two Generals were waving happily. "That traitor," Jack muttered as somebody handed him a microphone.

"What song are we doing?" he growled into the microphone.

"Oh you'll recognize it, Jack!" Hammond called.

Grogan took that as his cue and the familiar opening notes of 'Ain't No Mountain High Enough' filled the room. They could barely hear the music over the cheering and whistling they were all getting as the song began. Jack and Daniel exchanged helpless looks, sharing one microphone between them. Janet and Sam had the other one.

They were all beyond embarrassed: Daniel had confessed last year that he had accidentally turned over to the General the tape from their party, which included, among other embarrassing things, all of them dancing around singing this exact song in their pajamas. But General Hammond had never brought it up, so they had all sort of forgotten about it. The song was a grim reminder, and they were all mortified.

However, as Daniel and Jack began awkwardly singing the first lines of the song, Jack decided as long as they were up there, he was going to try and keep it from ruining Sam and Daniel's fun, so he jumped right in. His attitude was contagious and soon the four of them were singing loudly and enthusiastically to each other, even dancing around a bit, all though the rest of them were much more enthusiastic about that than Jack.

Jack thought absently as the song finished that his neighbors might actually call the police; everyone was making so much noise cheering, whistling, and demanding encores. The four of them joined hands and took several dramatic bows, then promptly went to go get themselves drinks, Janet and Sam both insisting they were going to 'go find a corner, curl up, and die.'

Grogan announced he was taking a short break and that the dancing would continue shortly.

The Two Evil Generals, as Jack now decided to think of Jacob and George, joined the rest of them as they got their drinks, grinning evilly. "Well, I would say that the live show was much better than the recorded version, wouldn't you, Jacob?"

"Oh I don't know, I think they had a bit more room to move around on the tape, and were much less..."

"Sober?" Hammond supplied.

"I was going to say 'inhibited,' but 'sober' works too. So I kind of liked that one better..."

"You showed my father the tape, sir!" Sam squeaked at General Hammond.

"Oh yeah, he really enjoyed it, didn't you, Jacob?"

"I sure did, George."

"Ohfercryinoutloud," Jack, Sam, Daniel, and Janet all muttered at the same time.

They all looked at each other and burst out laughing. Oh hell, Jack thought as he popped the cap off a new beer. If you can't look like an absolute idiot with your best friends, then you need new friends.


	6. Near Misses

A/N: Well, okay, when I started writing and posting fanfic, I never intended to stray from the reality created by the show, because I honestly believe the show is shippy enough by itself. Apparently there's a little part of me that disagrees with that. Hmm. Maybe I'm just on that 'fine line' Hammond is always accusing O'Neill of walking. Who knows. Enough rambling, right? You guys want the 'yucky love stuff.' (Oh dear Lord, I'm quoting Julia Roberts movies... kill me now.)

Ch 6: Near misses

Sam had been dancing almost all night long, not having the heart to say no to anybody who asked her, since it was her birthday, no matter how much her shoes were starting to hurt her feet. She couldn't help but wonder if she was going to get to dance with her CO though. He hated dancing, she knew, but it _was _her birthday.

Still, it was getting late, and people were already starting to leave. She didn't know how much longer Grogan was going to keep playing music. As she looked around the room, which was still fairly crowded but less so than it had been earlier, she didn't even spot her CO anywhere.

Figuring he'd gone outside for some fresh air, she stepped out onto the deck. The air was still chilly, despite the heaters that were going, but not that bad. The deck appeared empty at a quick glance, however, but she enjoyed the way she could still hear the party in the background but could also hear the normal outdoor sounds of night time. She walked over to the railing and leaned forward on her elbows slightly, looking up at the stars. It was going to be a clear day tomorrow.

"Cold?" a familiar voice asked quietly, stepping up behind her and completely invading her personal space.

Sam jumped. "You scared me. What are you lurking in a dark corner or something?" she asked quickly, adding a belated, "Sir?" to sound less insubordinate.

"Maybe. What are you doing out here? Tired of Daniel stepping on your feet?"

"I was looking for you," Sam said with a small smile she knew he couldn't see, since she was still facing his yard.

"I'm out here," he supplied.

She glanced over her shoulder at him and saw that he was about to take off his coat for her. "I'm okay," she said quickly, turning back to look up at the stars.

"You're cold."

"If you take that off you'll be cold," she said absently.

"Compromise," he offered quietly.

She inhaled sharply in surprise as he wrapped the coat around her from behind. With himself still in it.

"Interesting compromise," she managed to get out as he reached around her and zipped her up inside the coat with him. Her entire back was brought into full contact with him and the trapped heat inside the coat made her face and legs seem even colder. It was a strangely exciting contrast. So was the soft sweater against her bare back and the hard muscles underneath that sweater.

"You're going to have a lot of explaining to do if somebody else comes out here," Sam finally said after she'd gotten somewhat used to the strange position. "Especially if it's Dad."

"Yeah, well, I'll just use you as a shield," he said casually. "Besides, if anybody glances out here they'll just see my back. You're completely hidden."

"Unless they look down and see you've grown an extra set of legs."

"An extra nice set of legs."

"Colonel," she objected mildly.

"So, you were looking for me?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Wondering if you were going to dance with me on my birthday," she said quietly.

"I'll dance with you right now," he said, swaying dramatically to one side.

She giggled and said, "That's not what I meant. I don't think it would look much better if somebody saw us dancing alone out here."

"Probably not," he agreed. "I'd have thought you'd be tired of dancing by now. How many times did the Simmons kid trap you? Four?"

"Five," she admitted. "And these shoes are killing me, but... I think I've danced with everybody here except the one person I wanted to dance with most."

He made an irritated sound at the back of his throat and said, "You don't play fair, you know."

"Oh but zipping me up in your coat with you with my arms trapped is really fair," she countered.

"Hey, that's right, your arms _are _trapped," he said with a chuckle, tickling her waist lightly.

She squirmed, which threw them both off balance and gasped, "Please, don't."

"Okay, yeah, that could turn out dangerous," he agreed, squeezing her arms and then settling with his arms around her snugly.

"I'm sure you already know this," Jack said after a few long minutes of comfortable silence as they just stood there, rocking back and forth slightly. "But you look... amazing... tonight." The sincerity behind his voice, along with the fact that he was speaking so quietly and directly into her ear, made her shiver so hard she knew he had felt it too.

She leaned out into his arms as much as the jacket would permit so she could turn her head and see him. He met her eyes, the dark brown somehow managing to twinkle even in the dim light. He sighed as his gaze dropped down to her mouth and she knew what he was thinking. She wasn't expecting him to kiss her until everyone else had gone home, but this just seemed too perfect. If he didn't do it now, she would.

Luckily they seemed to be having the same thought, because she leaned back into him just as he leaned forward. The space between their lips was small, but it was taking them a long time to close it. Just as he finally grazed her lips with his, the door slid open suddenly and they both froze, wondering who it was.

Jack jerked his head up quickly and whispered, "Damn."

"Jack?" Daniel asked in that happy voice he always had when he was drunk.

"What, Daniel?" Jack barked, not turning around in case Daniel hadn't noticed Sam yet.

"Uh, have you seen Sam?"

They both breathed a collective sigh of relief. "Not recently, why?" Jack asked, hoping he sounded casual.

"Um, she was looking for you, she wanted to dance with you and Grogan says he's only playing a few more songs."

"All right, thanks Daniel."

There was a long silence and Daniel said, "So are you coming in?"

"YES, Daniel!" Jack said impatiently. "I'll be in in a minute, go... find Fraiser and dance with her."

"Okay," Daniel agreed happily, going back inside and shutting the door.

Sam started laughing. "Glad you're so amused," Jack mumbled as he unzipped his coat and let her go.

They went back inside, both determined to put the near-miss/near-kiss behind them until the party was over. Jack shrugged off his coat and draped it over the back of a chair, but grabbed Sam's hand as she started to move towards where everyone was dancing.

She raised an eyebrow at him. He didn't explain why he stopped her, just knelt down and started fiddling with the straps of her shoes until he had them undone.

She put a hand on his shoulder and stepped out of them, toeing them under the chair his coat was on. "That is so much better," she said appreciatively, closing her eyes and wiggling her toes into his floor.

He laughed and said, "You should have done it a long time ago then. Come on, I promise not to step on your feet." She grabbed his hand and hurried towards the group of people dancing, glad the song was slow.

Jacob Carter leaned against the wall with his arms folded, watching his daughter dance with her CO and pointedly ignoring Selmak's attempts to soothe him. It wasn't that they were dancing together; his daughter had danced with nearly everybody there. It wasn't how close they were dancing either that was bothering him. She wasn't standing that much closer to him than she had to Daniel, or to Teal'c when she had finally dragged the large man out there with her earlier. It wasn't even the fact that he'd watched her disappear several minutes ago and just _known _she had been going to look for her CO to drag him back there and dance. She'd done that to Teal'c too.

What was infuriating Jacob, for some reason, was the fact that she'd taken off her shoes.

Somehow the combination of her dress, the sight of Jack's hands on his daughter (although they were staying in perfectly appropriate places for his hands to be,) and Jacob's general knowledge and thoughts about the strange relationship the two of them shared were suddenly too much when combined with the sight of his daughter's bare feet.

He knew George had joined him in watching them, but he didn't take his eyes off of his daughter. George sighed deeply and squeezed his old friend's shoulder. "I know what you're thinking, Jacob," he said carefully.

"I'm already getting it from Selmak, George, just let it go," Jacob said through his teeth.

"All right," George said quietly, leaning back against the wall next to his friend.

As one song ended, another began, and neither Jack nor Sam seemed to notice, Jacob said quietly, "How can you be okay with this, George? You're their CO..."

"Jacob, look at that man's face," George said quietly.

Jacob reluctantly did as his friend requested. Jack had the normal blank soldier face firmly in place. But Jacob squinted, trying to see that far across the room, saw the look in Jack's eyes, and sighed heavily. Well this just got better and better, didn't it.

"I don't know what you see when you look at that man, Jake," George started gently. "But I see a man holding everything he wants and knows damn well he can't have. As hard as I've tried, I can't feel anything other than pity for either of them." George squeezed Jacob's shoulder once more and left him alone to let that sink in.

Jacob sighed, suddenly really grateful that he couldn't see Sam's face from where he was standing. Jack was one thing, but if his daughter looked even a tenth as torn as he did, Jacob wouldn't be able to take it. Selmak voiced her opinion that George was a lot smarter than he looked. Jacob told Selmak to shut the hell up, but she knew he didn't really mean it this time.

Grogan announced the last song of the night and Jack made eye contact with Daniel, who was nearby and ending a dance with Janet. Jack nodded Daniel over and said quietly, "Last dance. Has to be with Daniel."

Sam met his eyes sadly for a moment and nodded. He was right. There were a lot less people here now, which meant a lot more eyes were on them. He squeezed her hand before handing her over to Daniel and forcing himself to smile brightly at Janet.

"Well, doc, you hiding any needles on your person? Is it safe to approach?"

She laughed and said, "I'd rather sit this one out if that's okay with you, Colonel."

"Of course," he said. "Let's go get a drink."

He led Dr. Fraiser over to get them both fresh drinks, barely noticing what he was doing. All his thoughts were on the woman still dancing in the middle of the room. Across the room, Jacob Carter, still in a silent grumping match with Selmak, was doing the same thing.


	7. The Big Finish

A/N: Wow, I didn't mean for the last chapter to come off as sad as it did! I'm trying to transition a bit from the random comedy of things like slumber parties to next year without Daniel, because that one's obviously going to be sadder than most. Anyway, here's the last part of this one, and it's definitely the shippiest thing I've ever written. I don't think it's sad, at least I hope it's not. Feedback will be especially cherished on this chapter, as I'm stepping out of my element a bit on this one, and the ending might be a bit... yeah. Let's just see, shall we...

Ch 7: The Big Finish

Jack, Sam, and Daniel said goodbye to the two Generals, who were among the last guests to leave. Jack was surprised when Jacob shook his hand and gave him a genuine smile. He'd always got along very well with Jacob in the field, but in casual situations they had always mainly tried to avoid each other, particularly after the little incident after Sam's party two years ago...

And as Jack's eyes had been drawn to the man's daughter all night long like magnets, Jack was pretty sure Jacob would have noticed at some point and was probably not too happy with him at the moment. Jacob, however, shook his hand, smiled, told him it was a great party, thanked him, and moved on, hugging Sam tightly as he told her goodbye as well.

The Generals left, then the remaining few guests left, and everyone started cleaning up, the late hour finally catching them all up. Jack suppressed a loud yawn as he started collecting random plates and cups in a large bag with Teal'c. "Carter! Daniel!" he suddenly called. "Knock off the cleaning, it's your party!"

Daniel didn't need telling twice. He said goodnight to everyone, thanked Jack sincerely, and disappeared up the stairs. Carter, however, was still in the kitchen with Janet, probably putting away the leftover food, he figured.

When he and Teal'c finished gathering the rubbish, he went into the kitchen and sure enough, the two women were packaging all the food and putting it in the fridge. "Hey, I know you heard me," Jack objected, taking a container of food out of his 2IC's hands.

Janet said, "I'm going to go get my things," and left them alone.

"No reason for me not to help," Sam said absently, shutting the fridge and turning to him. She caught him yawning and smiled. "Tired?"

"Yeah, it's hard keeping up with you kids."

"I'm sure. I need your truck. I'm going to take Janet over to my place," she told him quietly.

"Now?" he asked, confused. He was tired, but still. He wasn't about to let her get away without finishing that kiss they had almost started on his deck.

"Yes, sir, but I'm just taking her over there to spend the night. You know how Janet gets, she can't drive, and I don't want to leave Cassie alone at my house all night."

"You're coming back?" he asked, hoping he sounded more casual than pathetic but not willing to bet on it.

"Yeah. I'll bring Maggie home too."

"Okay," he agreed with an easy grin.

She shook her head, trying hard not to smile at him but failing. He looked way too comfortable and smug at the moment, even though he did look ready to fall asleep. "Think you'll still be awake when I get back?" she asked lightly.

"I'd say it's a definite possibility," he said as Janet came back into the kitchen.

"Great party, sir," Janet said as she pulled her coat on. She did the buttons up crooked, looked down at herself, and frowned. Jack had to laugh at her. Drunk Janet was so very different from Doc Janet.

"Thanks, doc. Thanks for all your help."

"Of course. See you Monday."

He waved, winking at Sam as she shepherded Janet out the door.

After they left, Jack and Teal'c moved all the furniture back where it belonged, which drained Jack completely of the little energy he had left. "Teal'c, next year if you hear me planning something this big, feel free to shoot me on the spot. In fact, please do."

"I thought the party was most enjoyable, O'Neill. You should be proud."

"Yeah. Well, next year, we're going to McDonald's. Our little scientists can each take a turn on the slide, get their free ice cream cones, and that's it," he said, collapsing into a corner of the couch and propping his legs up on the coffee table.

Teal'c shook his head minutely. O'Neill's sarcasm was usually a waste of good energy, in Teal'c's opinion. "If you do not need any more help, O'Neill, I will check on Daniel Jackson and join him in the guest room to begin my kel-no-reem."

"Sure, T, sweet dreams, er... sweet...kel-no-reeming," Jack said, stretching dramatically and sinking back into the couch cushions. "Thanks for all the help buddy."

"Enjoy the remainder of your evening, O'Neill," Teal'c said as he headed up the stairs.

Jack spent about half a second wondering if Teal'c had meant that to sound suggestive or not before nodding off to sleep.

Sam let herself and Maggie back into the Colonel's house. The puppy, who was tired as well, immediately took herself off to bed in Jack's room as soon as Sam let her off the leash. Most of the lights in the house were off, but the deck lights and the kitchen lights were still on, filtering into the living room enough so that the first thing she noticed was that the furniture had all been put back into place.

The second thing she noticed made her stop and smile. Jack was sprawled out in a corner of the couch, one arm on the arm rest, the other stretched over the back of the couch. His legs were propped up on the coffee table. He was still dressed but he'd lost his shoes, which prompted Sam to step out of her painful shoes again immediately as well.

His head was lolled back against the couch cushions, his mouth open slightly. He was almost snoring, but not quite. The sight of him so out of it in the middle of a living room that still showed signs of having been host to the elaborate party he'd just thrown for her and Daniel was strangely more exciting all of a sudden than the feel of him dancing with her earlier.

Well, okay, that was a bit of an exaggeration, she thought as she shrugged out of her coat and dropped it on a chair as she walked over to him. But it was still pretty damn hot. She stopped in front of him, expecting him to wake up, but he didn't. She leaned over him, looking at him carefully. He still didn't wake up. The perfect opportunity to give him an openly affectionate, completely unguarded smile and take her time looking at him.

He looked comfortable and peaceful, but not comfortable enough for her to leave him there all night without getting her birthday kiss. She figured he probably wouldn't be too happy with her in the morning if she didn't wake him up for it either, judging by the looks he'd been giving her all night, and all the things he had said and... done. She smiled again and quickly relived her favorite memories of the night. Her mind flashed back to this time last year, to the intensity of the kiss they'd shared on his roof after they had sort of talked about why they had to follow their 'one kiss per year' rule.

Tonight was a perfect example of why that rule was so important. Just the knowledge that it was coming had made it almost impossible to avoid, even in a house full of people, not only people they worked with but the leader of the base and her own father as well. As much as she might have liked there to be more talking between them about their impossibly strange relationship, she also knew that the rules they had were barely working as it was, and she knew that acknowledging that fact out loud would cause the whole system to completely fall apart.

Well, she had never been accused of being normal. She didn't need a normal relationship. She did, however, desperately need to kiss the man who was currently asleep on the couch in front of her.

She took a deep breath and settled herself sideways across his lap, slipping an arm around his shoulders when he woke up, obviously confused, his arms going around her automatically. "Hi," she offered simply.

"You're back," he said happily, grinning as she leaned in and kissed him.

Well, that certainly seemed to wake him up quickly, she couldn't help but think as he immediately started kissing her back with a hungry desperation that was overwhelming. Maybe it was because her dress was backless, so there was more skin exposed now, but for some reason this year she was noticing his hands a lot more than she ever remembered being aware of before. Then again, she was pretty sure she would have remembered if he'd ever slid a hand up the back of her thigh and curled his hand around her ass before.

That hand seemed perfectly content where it was, but the other one was running all along her bare back and arm one second and tangling in her hair the next, and he wouldn't stop the relentless way he was kissing her long enough for her to kiss him back properly, but honestly, she wasn't sure if she'd be capable of it at the moment anyway.

"I will retrieve your water, Daniel Jackson, return to your bed immediately."

Okay, that was Teal'c,Sam realized dimly.

Sam and Jack both froze, as though that might somehow make their definitely compromising position look okay. As they heard Teal'c coming into the living room, Sam moved to dive for the opposite side of the couch but Jack held her firmly in place. Teal'c would already know what they had been doing but he'd just as soon not give the man a look at the most obvious evidence.

He quickly slipped his hands to more neutral territory around Sam's waist and she removed her fingers from his hair and her other hand from... when the hell had it got down the neck of his sweater? Okay, _that _was beyond embarrassing.

Teal'c walked past them, nodding his head at them calmly, and went into the kitchen. They looked at each other, mouths open in shock at the entire situation. What the hell were they supposed to do now?

Teal'c returned with a bottle of water and probably would have keptwalking and never mentioned the incident to either of them ever again, if Sam hadn't called out, "Teal'c this isn't what it looks like!"

Teal'c stopped, gave them both a small smile, and took pleasure in slowly looking them both over, enjoying how nervous and uncomfortable it clearly made both of them. Still with a small smile on his face, he said calmly, "Major Carter, it merely looks as if you and O'Neill are continuing your annual birthday tradition. I must take this water to Daniel Jackson now, or he will come looking for it himself. Good night."

He tipped his head at both of them and went back upstairs without a word. They watched him go, both stunned.

"How long do you think he..." Sam finally started.

"Who knows," Jack said, suddenly laughing. "That guy knows everything."

"Apparently," Sam agreed, laughing nervously and looking down, suddenly finding the hand still pressed against his chest very interesting. Jack's thumb, seemingly by itself, started stroking her arm.

"Um," she started after a few seconds of awkward silence.

"We _were _interrupted," Jack pointed out.

"Definitely," she agreed.

"So... technically that kiss didn't really get a chance to... finish, did it?" he asked.

"No, it didn't," she agreed.

"Good answer," he said quickly, curling his hand around her neck and guiding her lips back down to his.

The end.

A/N: Birthday Traditions 6 is next: 2364937


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